Monday, March 22, 2010

Home Shows are a labor intensive and EXPENSIVE method for marketing. Not quite as expensive as yellow page advertising however, if you do it right you may get some sales from the home show. Timing of these shows however, is often poor. When should you consider the investment in a home show? Consider the following analogies.

It is 1944 in France, you are a commander on the battlefield. The opposing forces are mounting an attack. You know you have a slight firepower advantage. When do you give the order to open up on them?

While they are still under cover or when the most enemy soldiers are vulnerable?

Simple Answer right?

You are Duck Hunting. Do you expend all your ammunition before or after you see a duck?

Exactly-- you shoot when the birds are in the air!

Fall home shows for deck companies are just ridiculous. We tried it many times, however for a hand full of leads it just wasn't worth the effort. Send out some glossy flyer's for 1-10'th the price or invest the money in on-line advertising instead.

Early spring Home Shows are also just throwing your money to the wind. If you are casting your net into the deck and fence pool in February and March, you are typically throwing your money away.

The only Home Shows worth doing are the ones that happen once the weather has warmed and the trees are turning green. Only flowers in bloom and leaves on the tree start the spring buying season for decks and fences.

People are simply not in the mood for buying until the ENVIRONMENT signals their psychological mindset to change. If there is no sense of urgency--people just do not buy. They shop... They call as many deck and fence builders as they can and typically those playing that game end up with worn shoes.

You the Deck Builder cannot change the environment. We react to the environment. We roll with the punches and enjoy when the environment is favorable. We can no more control our environment than we can control our expiration date.

Monday, March 08, 2010

and this blog, and they are buying it through Google. I guess that means that the Yellow Pages Group is now a middle man selling Google Adwords.

If you had a sneaking suspicion that yellow page advertising didn't work very well nowadays--here is proof positive that Yellow Page Advertising's time is passed.

When people asked me about advertising decks and fences in the Yellow Pages, I typically put it this way. "Quick... where is your phone book right now?-- Can you answer in 5 seconds or less? Unless you are over 55 you likely don't know where your phone book is. I found mine a few months back and it still had the plastic on it.

These days folks typically walk to their computer... type in what they are looking for and where... and get the answer from Google.

We have top ranks in places like Los Angeles, Dallas and many other Cities in North America. Dallas, Houston, Tampa and Boston are available. We can get you good ranking in many cities around the globe--Not just in North America. We can do it because we create actual content--information and inspiration that people recommend to friends and that is why we get hundreds of thousands of visits a month.

The internet can be the single most cost effective method for getting connected with potential clients--if the site is well built and of course, once it is established.

We shut off our yellow page ads about 10 years ago in favor of the web.

In the early days you could throw a web site together quickly and get top ranking for nearly everything.

These days starting a website and getting real traffic is a bit more difficult. The average phone company website will get 30 or so visits a month if you are fortunate.

The question is, if you are starting a new web site from scratch, how are you going to get in front of the other 500 deck builders in your area, a hundred of so directories and of course GardenStructure.com for your city's searches.

You can spend a hundred grand or so on a great website and pay monthly for optimization and wait a year... or put our leads in your pocket--and get started in a couple of weeks with us.

Call 888 293 8938 or send an email to plans@gardenstructure.com to get involved.